Why Bosses Appear Incompetent

According to the old Peter Principle, bosses and those in upper management are destined to be regarded by those below them in the company hierarchy as incompetent and time-wasters. The idea was formulated back in 1969, and it would appear that it has held true ever since. Now, scientists propose that there may actually be some scientific merit behind this claim, but argue that the bosses have nothing to do with it as individuals. The basic explanation is that those people are at one point promoted to a job they simply can't handle, NewScientist reports.

In other words, each person has a certain level of training, intelligence, knowledge and energy. They put them to good use to climb on the company ladder, and do so for quite some time. But, as it stands to reason, getting a better job does not only imply a fatter paycheck, but also increased responsibilities, which simply overwhelm some people. What the Peter Principle is saying is that the bosses who tend to be the most hated or despised by their employees are those who have been promoted to a job that equals or exceeds their maximum limits as individuals.

The main problem most people have with their higher-ups is the fact that the bosses tend to be up to no good as they are promoted further and further away from the common workers. “They end up distracting us from their crummy work with giant desks. They replace action with incomprehensible acronyms, blame others for failure, and cheat to create the illusion of progress,” expert Robert Sutton, from the California-based Stanford Graduate School of Business, says. Regardless, once they have reached the limit of their own incompetence, these people tend to remain in office until they get fired or are otherwise removed by their superiors.

Scientific studies have already revealed that, the more time a person spends on a certain position within a company, the more their performances degrade. This has been documented scientifically, experts say. According to Stanford economist Edward Lazear, the measure of a person's success is determined by their unique skills, as well as by circumstances. If an employee is especially good at a certain task, and gets promoted because of it, there is no guarantee that he or she will be just as well qualified to handle more responsibilities, the studies say.